The purpose of the study is to assess whether Corporate Social Responsibility regarding water is considered relevant for sustainability in companies related to agriculture in South Africa, considering that their impact directly influences public access to water. To accomplish this purpose, a qualitative approach was developed through the study of the 22 existing companies from the agriculture sector, food and beverages, forest and paper production, and Tobacco, which published their last integrated report within the Global Reporting Initiative framework. A thematic content analysis was carried out, involving the analysis of the written sustainability reports. For data analyses, ATLAS.ti 7.1 software was used to match the main aspects related to water management. Pragmatic advice for practitioners derives from the research results, considering that Corporate Social Responsibility in general—and sustainable water management in particular—represents an opportunity for companies to get competitive advantages in the market. The study also determines the best practices in the field in South Africa with benchmarking purposes.

Inorganic arsenic (iAs) in drinking water and food items has been associated with lung and bladder cancers in several countries including Pakistan. In present study water, food items were collected from Arsenic (As) endemic areas (southern part of Pakistan) during 2008–2012, to evaluate its impact on the health of local population. Exposure of As was checked by analyzing biological samples (blood and scalp hairs) of male lung and bladder cancer patients (smokers and non-smokers). For comparative purpose the healthy subjects of same age group and residential area as exposed referents (EXR) and from non-contaminated area (Hyderabad, Pakistan) as non-exposed referents (NER) were also selected. As concentration in drinking water, food and biological samples were analyzed using electrothermal atomic absorption spectrometry. The validation of technique was done by the analysis of certified reference material (CRM) of blood and hair samples. The As contents in drinking water and food were found 3–15-folds elevated than permissible limits, where as in biological samples; EXR have 2–3-folds higher than NER and cancer patients have 5–9-folds higher than NER. The significant difference was observed in smokers (P < 0.01). The outcomes of the study revealed that As levels were elevated in blood and scalp hair samples of both types of cancer subjects as compared to referents (P < 0.001). It was observed that the lung cancer patients (LCP) have 20–35% higher levels of As in both biological samples as compared to bladder cancer patients (BCP) due to smoking habit. This study has proved the correlation among As contaminated water, food and cigarette smoking between different types of cancer risks.

Exploring the environmental impact of dietary consumption has become increasingly important to understand the carbon-water-food nexus, vital to achieving UN sustainable development goals. However, the research on diet-based nexus assessment is still lacking. Here, we developed an Environmentally Extended Multi-Regional Input-Output (EE-MRIO) model with compiling a global MRIO table based on the latest Global Trade Analysis Project (GTAP) 10 database, where we specifically constructed a water withdrawal account and matched it to each economy at the sectoral level. The regional heterogeneity and synergy of carbon-water nexus affected by dietary patterns in nine countries was explored. The results show that: (1) Dietary consumption is the main use of water withdrawal for each country; Japan, the US, South Korea, and India have a high per capita dietary water footprint. Mainly due to consumption of processed rice, Japan has the highest per capita value of 488 M³/year, accounting for 63.4% of the total water footprint. (2) The total dietary carbon footprints in China, India, and the US are high, which is mainly caused by the high consumption of animal products (including dairy) either due to the large population (China, India) or animal-based diet (the US). Americans have the highest per capita dietary carbon footprint, reaching 755.4 kg/year, 2.76 times that of the global average. (3) Generally, imported/foreign footprints account for a greater share in dietary water and carbon footprints of developed countries with an animal-based diet. (4) In the nexus analysis, the US, Japan, and South Korea are key-nexus countries, vegetables, fruit and nuts, tobacco and beverages, and other food products are selected as key-nexus sectors with relatively high dietary water and carbon footprint. Furthermore, dietary consumption choices lead to different environmental impacts. It is particularly important to find a sustainable dietary route adapted to each country considering that heterogeneity and synergism exist in key-nexus sectors to achieve the relevant Sustainable Development Goals.

Companies are responsible for reporting not only their own water practices but also those of their suppliers. An evaluation of the supply chain water information in the sustainability and integrated reports of 49 food, beverage and tobacco firms listed on the JSE (South Africa), ASX (Australia) and Dow Jones Sustainability Index (DJSI) exchanges, respectively, was conducted. It was found that the companies fall short in their disclosure of consumption of water-related supply chain information. The firms listed on the DJSI and JSE outperformed the Australian companies. This paper presents and applies a novel water disclosure index of supply chain information.

In this study, ultralayered Co₃O₄ adsorbent was synthesized and characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The surface area of the solid material was found to be 75.5m²g⁻¹ by BET method. The ultralayered Co₃O₄ was used for the first time as an effective adsorbent for the preconcentration of the Pb(II) ions in various samples prior to flame atomic absorption detection. Analytical parameters affecting the solid phase extraction of Pb(II) such as pH, adsorption and elution contact time, eluent volume and concentration, sample volume and common matrix ions were investigated. The recovery values for Pb(II) were found to be ≥92% even in the presence of 75,000mgL⁻¹ Na(I), 75,000mgL⁻¹ K(I), and 75,000mgL⁻¹ Ca(II) ions. 10s vortexing time was enough for both adsorption and elution contact times. The elution was easily made with 2mL of 2.0molL⁻¹ HNO₃. The reusability (170 cycles) and adsorption capacity (35.5mgg⁻¹) of ultralayered Co₃O₄ were excellent. The preconcentration factor of the method and detection limit were found to be 175 and 0.72µgL⁻¹, respectively. The described method was validated with certified reference material (RM 8704 Buffalo River Sediment, BCR-482 Licken and SPS-WW1 Batch 111-Wastewater) and spiked real samples. It was also applied for the preconcentration of Pb(II) ions in various water (well water, mineral water, waste water and sea water), food (cauliflower and barley), street sediment and tobacco samples.

A simple, rapid, sensitive and environmentally friendly separation and preconcentration procedure, based on the carrier element free coprecipitation (CEFC) of Cu(II) and Cd(II) ions by using an organic coprecipitant, 2-{[4-(4-fluorophenyl)-5-sulphanyl-4H-1,2,4-triazol-3-yl]methyl}-4-{[(4-fluorophenyl) methylene]amino}-5-(4-methylphenyl)-2,4-dihydro-3H-1,2,4-triazol-3-one (MEFMAT) was developed. The analyte ions were determined by flame atomic absorption spectrometric (FAAS) determinations. The optimum conditions for the coprecipitation process were investigated on several commonly tested experimental parameters such as pH of the solution, amount of MEFMAT, sample volume, standing time, centrifugation rate and time. The influences of some anions, cations and transition metals on the recoveries of analyte ions were also investigated, and no considerable interference was observed. The preconcentration factor was found to be 50. The detection limits for Cu(II) and Cd(II) ions based on the three times the standard deviation of the blanks (N:10) were found to be 1.49 and 0.45μgL⁻¹, respectively. The relative standard deviations were found to be lower than 3.5% for both analyte ions. The method was validated by analyzing two certified reference materials (CRM-TMDW-500 Drinking Water and CRM-SA-C Sandy Soil C) and spike tests. The procedure was successfully applied to sea water and stream water as liquid samples and tobacco, hazelnut and black tea as solid samples.

An environmentally friendly, sensitive, easy and fast ultrasound-assisted ionic liquid-based dispersive liquid-liquid microextraction technique (UA-IL-DLLME) was developed to preconcentrate trace quantities of nickel Ni(II) ion in water, food and tobacco samples prior to detection by FAAS. The proposed technique based on utilisationthe of ionic liquid (IL) (1-hexyl-3-methylimidazolium tris(pentafluoroethyl)trifluorophosphate [HMIM][FAP]) as an extraction solvent for Ni(II) ions after the complexation with quinalizarin (Quinz) at pH 6.0. The impact of different analytical parameters on the microextraction efficiency was investigated. In the range of 2.0–300 µg L⁻¹, the calibration graph was linear. Limit of detection and preconcentration factor were 0.6 µg L⁻¹ and 100. Relative standard deviation (RSD%) as precision at 50 and 100 µg L⁻¹ of Ni(II) were 2.4% and 3.6%, respectively (n = 10). The validation of the proposed procedure was verified by a test of two certified reference materials (TMDA-51.3 fortified water, TMDA-53.3 fortified water and SRM spinach leaves 1570A) applying the standard addition method. Finally, the proposed UA-IL-DLLME method was developed and applied to preconcentrate and determine of trace quantities of Ni(II) in real water, food and tobacco samples with satisfactory results.

The current work focuses on the facile and effective synthesis of a new nanocomposite based on multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWCNT) decorated with magnetic core–shell Fe₃O₄@SiO₂ and functionalized with 3-mercaptopropyltrimethoxysilane (3-MPTS) used in the vortex-assisted dispersive magnetic solid-phase extraction (VA–DMSPE) of Cd(II) ions in environmental and food samples. The nanocomposite was characterized and the parameters that influenced the VA–DMSPE were optimized through a fractional factorial design 2⁵–¹. The proposed method provided a preconcentration factor of 33.14 times, detection and quantification limits of 0.090 μg L⁻¹ and 0.302 μg L⁻¹, respectively, and a linearity range of 0.001–40.0 μg L⁻¹. The developed method was effectively applied to preconcentrate and determine Cd(II) in water, tobacco, green tea leaves, ginkgo biloba, carrots, and rice samples, and its accuracy was evaluated using GF AAS.